Sam Stosur not only shook up Roland Garros by becoming only the second player to beat Justine Henin here since 2002 but she ensured a fascinating quarter-final against the top seed, Serena Williams, whose regard for the Australian has wavered between contemptuous and adulatory.

Serena's warm words today – "She has a good chance to go all the way" – jarred with her sentiments after Stosur beat her in California last August: "She had a lot of lucky shots. She's a good framer."

Stosur was a little more than a "good framer", someone who hits a lot of balls off the frame of the racket, as she out-served and out-hustled Henin to win 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 on a packed Court Philippe Chatrier which, if not exactly hostile towards her, was clearly behind the darling from across the border. Stosur won the crowd round, though, with her controlled aggression and willingness to come to the net, winning points there 15 times in 19 visits.

Playing with the freedom of reduced expectations, perhaps, Stosur did not fear Henin whereas the little dynamo, five months into her comeback, exuded anxiety in losing the second set so spectacularly. Her reassembled serve clearly was malfunctioning and her feared backhand utterly collapsed in the final game as she netted four times in a row, a dispiriting exit for a proud champion.

At times Henin must have thought she was watching herself across the net, so cool and muscular were some of Stosur's groundstrokes, so assured her court presence, all sustained by an uncannily accurate reading of the game. At 26 she has reached maturity that makes her consistently dangerous, a player growing in confidence.

Henin, a four-times champion here, last lost on the Roland Garros clay to the Italian Tathiana Garbin in the second round in 2004, and that was when Henin was ill. Garbin, now 32, lost 6-3, 6-1 to Caroline Wozniacki in the second round last week. The Belgian was rattled on court but composed off it. "She [Stosur] has a lot of qualities," Henin said. "She really starts to be very consistent, especially on the clay. It's probably her best surface. She has improved a lot in the last few months."

Williams, who rediscovered her zest to blow away Israel's Shahar Peer 6-2, 6-2 in a little over an hour, apparently has reassessed Stosur. "You can never underestimate anyone," she said, "and Sam is actually a wonderful clay-court player. She proved that last year [when she reached the semi-finals], and this year she's only lost twice on the clay. She's someone you can't overlook."

So there is already an edge between them, as well as recent history. At the Australian Open Williams beat Stosur with ruthless efficiency to stop her progress into the quarters, and slipped the knife in afterwards at the press conference, telling the local media: "Sorry guys, maybe next time."

Much has happened in Stosur's life, on and off the court. Less than three years ago, just after this tournament, she was struck down by Lyme Disease, a form of viral meningitis, which sidelined her for nearly a year as her career was on the rise. She has done well not only to recover from that but to put her game back together. She has the added incentive now of striving to get Williams to regret her words: the nasty ones.

On the men's side the third seed, Novak Djokovic, was largely untroubled beating the last American man standing, Robby Ginepri, in four sets. Rafael Nadal had a slightly easier time getting past Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci – the Spaniard has still not dropped a set. The Austrian Jürgen Melzer was efficient again in beating Teimuraz Gabashvili in four sets, but Fernando Verdasco, seeded seventh, went out to his Spanish compatriot Nicolás Almagro, also in four sets.